


Hearts Like Ours

by cellostiel



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Foster Care, Kid Fic, M/M, Trans Character, Transgender Reid, transgender character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 14:01:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7535593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cellostiel/pseuds/cellostiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm a registered foster parent, you know." Reid says abruptly. Morgan snaps his head up to look at him. </p>
<p>"No shit?"</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Reid is registered as a foster parent. On a case, he meets a kid that needs fostering.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Shrugs if I'll ever finish this but I like it enough to post the first chapter so. Everything I know about the foster system is from TV and the internet, so please excuse any inaccuracies & flat out fuck ups!
> 
> Warnings for talk about shitty foster situations. If anything else pops up, lemme know!

"He's abducting foster kids?" Reid asks, looking at Hotch in dismay.

"Seven in the last year and a half." Hotch says grimly. "Each is found two weeks later on a bench, each time in a different park."

"They're well-groomed, well-fed, most in significantly better condition than before they were reported missing." JJ says.

"Until they're found dead." Reid corrects. JJ presses her lips together and ducks her head.

"We believe he thinks he's saving them when he first takes them." Hotch continues.

"So why get rid of them?" Prentiss wonders.

"Maybe the fantasy gets old." Morgan guesses. "Or the kids inevitably do or say something to shatter the illusion."

"It could be that two weeks is how long it takes for the fantasy to play out." Reid says, staring at one of the faces up on the screen. "The kids become unnecessary because the unsub has satisfied what made them abduct the kids in the first place, and they dispose of them. But the satisfaction doesn't last, so they have to take another one."

Hotch nods. "Could he have been in the system himself at some point?"

"It's possible," Reid sweeps a hand through his hair, looking down at the file. "It's just as likely they grew up with younger foster siblings or had a close childhood friend who ended up in the system. They're probably a foster parent himself."

"Or maybe he just thinks these kids are easy pickings." Rossi says, tossing his file onto the table. "Who's gonna miss a foster kid, right?"

"What if their application was rejected?" Prentiss says. "Maybe they're trying to 'save' the kids they feel they were denied the chance of saving."

"That could have been the stressor." Hotch agrees. "Morgan, have Garcia look up applicants who were denied foster parent certification shortly before November, 2006. Then get your bags together; wheels up in twenty." Hotch grabs his copy of the file and sweeps out of the room, Prentiss hurriedly packing up her things and following him out. Morgan pulls out his phone and calls Garcia, watching as JJ gives Reid's shoulder a squeeze on her way out, Rossi behind her.

"I'll take a look, but that's kind of a wide net, Sugar." Garcia tells him, keys tapping loudly on the other end.

"Gotcha. Lemme know when you find something."

"You know I will."

"You're the best, Garcia."

He can hear the grin in her voice. "Hell yeah, I am."

Morgan hangs up, looking up to find Reid still at the table, frowning down at the file. "I thought you'd already have that memorized." he teases. Instead of his usual dry reply, Reid just sends him an annoyed look and stands to gather his things.

"Whoa, whoa," Morgan says, standing. "I was just kidding. You okay there, kid?"

"I'm fine." Reid says shortly, sticking the file in his satchel.

"You sure? Seems like this case is getting under your skin."

Reid sighs, closing his eyes a moment. "I'm fine, Morgan. It's just… these kids already have so much shit in their lives. They don't need an unsub who thinks they're doing them a _service_ by abducting and murdering them."

"I know that, Reid." Morgan says quietly. "And I know anything I say about how fucked up it is would be an understatement." Reid scoffs in agreement. "Hey, you know we're gonna get this guy, right?"

"I hope so." Reid mutters, slinging his satchel over his shoulder and all but stomping out of the room.

Morgan sighs, shaking his head as he gets his stuff together. Cases are always long, but they're longer when one of them has some emotional tie to it. They all have trouble with cases involving children, most of them in different ways, but this must hit home somewhere in Reid that it just doesn't with the others. Morgan just hopes it doesn't turn into one of those big, ugly things that make good agents do stupid things.

  
~

 

Reid is quiet and closed off the entire flight to Minnesota, but when Morgan brings it up to Hotch, he's told not to worry about it, that Hotch has a handle on it.

They go to the foster home the last two victims were living at before their abduction, and Reid all but blows up at the foster dad. JJ grabs him and hauls him out before he can do too much damage, and Hotch does his best to smooth things over with the foster parents. Morgan watches through the window as JJ talks Reid down.

"I'm sorry again about my agent." Hotch says as they're leaving. The father nods, sending a glare out the window.

Reid and JJ are already out by the cars when they get outside, and Hotch directs Morgan to ride with JJ so Reid can ride with him alone.

"Alright, what's up with Reid?" Morgan asks in the car.

JJ glances at him, pulling out onto the road. "You don't know?"

"Clearly not."

JJ chews at her lip. "Then it's not really my place to say."

Morgan sighs. "Yeah, that's what I figured. You and Hotch think you can get his head in the right place?"

"We can try. But it's… it's a sore subject. You know how it can be. We can only do so much; if Spencer doesn't want to listen, then we can't make him."

"Yeah," Morgan drums his fingers against the dashboard, says, "Doesn't mean we have to like it."

  
~

 

At the second house, Reid stays by the cars. Morgan almost decks the foster mom, and he gets sent out to join Reid. Reid raises his brows at him as he stomps over, kicking a rock under one of the SUVs.

"Everything okay?" Reid asks.

"No. No, this is bullshit."

Reid presses his lips together, glancing up at the house. "What'd they say?"

Just thinking about it makes his blood boil. He kicks another rock across the lawn.

"That bad, huh?" Reid asks flatly.

"The fuck is wrong with these people?" Morgan asks. "How do they even get approved in the first place?"

"The same way people pass their driving exam, then proceed to drive like they've never even heard of the rules of the road."

Morgan shakes his head, slumping back against the car. "It's bullshit. And where are the people who're supposed to be looking out for these kids?"

"I wonder about that every day." Reid mutters.

"Christ." Morgan breathes.

"I'm a registered foster parent, you know." Reid says abruptly. Morgan snaps his head up to look at him.

"No shit?"

"I uh, I applied shortly after I got my last doctorate. Fostered three kids. One of them was there only a week before his family was able to care for him again, the other took a few months."

"And the third?"

"There was a… problem. She got moved to a different home. After that, I got approached by the FBI and the BAU, and uh, I knew how much time the BAU takes from you, so I stopped taking kids in. Thought about starting again after a while, but then, well, then Hotch's divorce happened. I know that it would be different for me, that I'd probably have um, have a sitter or something, and only the child or children to be accountable to, but…" He shakes his head. "I don't know how JJ does it. Then uh, then after Henry was born, and they made me his godfather… you know, a- a part of me really wanted that again. To be a foster father. To- to be some kid's parent, even temporarily."

Morgan doesn't really know what to say to that. Thankfully he's saved by JJ and Hotch leaving the house, and this time he's the one forced to sit through a lecture from Hotch on the way to the next house.

Both him and Reid are told to wait by the cars, and they spend the time talking over the profile, Morgan trying to work up the nerve to ask what exactly Reid's hangup with this case is.

"Who're you?" a kid asks from behind them, making the both of them jump.

"Um," Reid says, looking the kids over. The kid who spoke is about ten, holding the hand of a girl about six years old and backed by an eight year-old boy. All of them have back-packs on. "We're FBI agents. We're here to ask your foster parents about Rickie - the uh, the little girl they were looking after that went missing last year."

"Rickie's not missing, they're dead." the same kid says. "And they weren't a girl."

Reid blinks. "They weren't?"

"They weren't a girl, so stop calling them that."

"Okay, I'll stop. Is there anything in particular they liked to be called?"

The kid shakes his head. "Just 'they'. If you're here to talk to Rachel, why are you out here?"

"We're in time-out." Reid admits. "Our friends are inside. Did you know any of the other kids that were taken?"

The boy shrugs. "I knew Dylan."

"Can you tell me about him?" Reid shifts to awkwardly perch on the step jutting out from the bottom of the car doors, meeting the kid more at his level. "Was he, um- what were his pronouns?"

"'He.'" the boy answers. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, did he- did he like boys, maybe? Or- or something else grown-ups told you or him was 'wrong' or 'dirty'?"

The boy nods slowly. "He liked boys."

Reid shares a look with Morgan, then says, "Thank you, um- what's your name?"

The boy hesitates, biting the inside of his cheek, before answering, "Grady." He squeezes the girl's hand, continues, "This is Elyse, and that's Cody."

"Thank you, Grady." Reid says. "This helps us a lot."

Grady nods, then tugs on the Elyse's hand, leading her and Cody inside. Reid stands, frowning after them.

"You think he's targeting queer kids?" Morgan asks.

"It's possible. Queer kids are already targeted and made miserable enough, and being queer in the system…" Reid chews on his lip, then heaves a sigh. "Could be that the unsub identifies with their struggles."

"You think the unsub's queer?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Could just be that it's more satisfying because they're having a harder time than other kids in the system."

"I'll call Rossi and Prentiss, let them know to ask the other foster parents about it."

"Tell them to ask the kids, if they can. They're more likely to know than the foster parents."

"Got it." Morgan pulls out his phone and steps away to make the call.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Just, seems like this case is getting to you. And now that kid is missing-"
> 
> "Grady. They told me to call them Grady."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops I had another chapter ready! Please excuse any inaccuracies with how the foster system works & the profile babble.
> 
> My tired-ass brain can't think of any warnings, but please let me know if there are any needed!

"According to the foster parents, foster siblings, and friends at school, four of the seven victims were known to fall on some part of the LGBT spectrum." Hotch tells them all. "As far as anyone knew, victims one, two, and five were straight and- and, um-"

"Cisgender." Reid fills in. "It could be that the first two victims were actually straight and cisgender, and the third victim's queerness was incidental, but it developed a preference."

"A situational offender turned preferential?" Rossi asks. 

"Most likely."

"Guys. Another child was taken." JJ announces, snapping her phone shut as she walks into the room. "Grady Pralt." Reid stiffens at the name, casting a look at Morgan. 

"When?" Hotch asks. 

"Just now. His siblings came home from school, but he didn't. Foster mom called it in."

"He's accelerating." Rossi notes. 

"Did Elyse or Cody see anything?" Morgan asks.

"They saw him talking to an adult, that's all I know."

"Reid, Morgan, you go talk to the kids." Hotch orders. "JJ, go with them. Prentiss, Rossi, you're with me. We'll go to the school, see if the teachers or the bus driver saw anything.

 

~

 

"Elyse, anything you can tell us might help Grady." Reid says softly. JJ is in the other room, talking to the foster parents. 

"I don't know," she says, holding her stuffed animal tight. "They were far away. I couldn't see."

"Can you at least guess the gender of the adult he was talking to?" Reid asks. Elyse hesitates, looking down at the floor. "It's okay, Elyse. We just need a guess. It's going to help us figure out who we're looking for."

Elyse scuffs her foot against the floor. Cody squeezes her hand, and she finally looks up. "They… looked like a girl." she says. "They were wearing a skirt, and they had long hair."

"Do you remember the color of her hair?" Morgan asks. 

Elyse bites her lip. "Dark? I don't know." 

"Thank you, Elyse. You did really good." Reid says, giving her a smile. "If you think of anything else - anything at all - just let us know, okay?" Elyse nods, and Morgan pulls out his phone, stepping away to call Hotch. He hears Reid switch to asking the kids about their day at school, getting the kids to relax and carefully gathering information the kids themselves don't even know they'd noticed.

"Got it." Hotch says. "We'll see if anyone at the school saw a woman with dark hair lurking around. Good work." 

Hotch hangs up and Morgan turns back to Reid.

"Elyse, I need to know… is Grady like Dylan and Rickie? Was there something about him that adults didn't like? Maybe he liked boys, or didn't like anyone at all. Or maybe he didn't always act how adults think boys should."

Elyse stares down at the floor, hiding her face in her stuffed animal. "I can't say."

"Hey, it's okay. You can tell me, I promise." Elyse hides further, and Reid gives her a gentle smile, saying, "You know, people didn't always think I was a boy."

Elyse peers up at him, but it's Cody who asks, "Really?"

"Really. For the longest time, adults thought I was a girl. It took forever to get them to see that they were wrong." 

"Sometimes…" Cody starts, then hesitates, glancing between Reid and Morgan. "Sometimes, Grady talks about not being a boy. Grady's not sure though, so," Cody shrugs, looking away. 

"Thank you, Cody, that's a big help."

"Is Grady gonna be okay?" Elyse asks.

"We're gonna do our best to make sure he is." Morgan tells her. 

"Don't let them hurt anyone else." Cody tells them, staring them down. 

"We won't." Reid promises. 

 

~

 

"Hey." Morgan glances at Reid, pulling a right to follow Hotch towards a suspect's house. "You alright?"

Reid looks at him, then turns back to the window, his head rested on his hand. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Just, seems like this case is getting to you. And now that kid is missing-"

"Grady. They told me to call them Grady."

Morgan nods. "And that's what I mean, man. I think you're a little attached." Reid turns to him, but Morgan cuts him off. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Not necessarily. You just gotta be careful, alright? I mean, there's a real chance this kid… there's chance that Grady… you know."

"I know." Reid says quietly, looking down at his lap. "I just- I know that when I was their age, if something had happened to me, I'm not sure if anyone would've been looking for me."

Morgan frowns. "What about your mom? And I know your dad was out of the picture, but he's been keeping tabs on you, right?"

Reid shrugs. "Those days, my mom wasn't exactly lucid most of the time. And my dad gave up custody. I don't know. Someone might have noticed because of my intellect, but no one would've given two shits about any of the other kids in the house."

"I thought you didn't have siblings."

"Oh. No, I- no. No biological ones."

"Your mom adopted?"

"No, no, she would never have passed the inspections. I, um- I was a foster child, for a while."

"Oh." That's… news to Morgan. 

"Yeah," Reid fiddles with his hands in his lap, chewing on his lip. "My dad left when I was ten, then, um, a few months later, my mom had a really bad episode. I had to stay home from school to take care of her, and I missed this um, this math competition. The coach noticed I'd been out of school for a few weeks, and he called to check in on me. When I answered and told him Mom wasn't available to talk, he got worried and came over. The house was a mess. I mean it was, it was bad. There was hardly any food in the fridge, and some of it was moldy- I'd meant to throw it out, but I was so busy taking care of my mom…" Reid wrings his hands together, sighing. "He called social services. They assessed the situation as unhealthy, and I was taken into the custody of the state." 

"Christ."

"It wasn't all bad. When I was fifteen, Mom got on meds that worked for her, made her stable, and they put me back in her care. I mean it didn't last, of course, the meds stopped working. But I was better equipped to take care of her, so they didn't take me away again."

"But you still had her institutionalized when you turned eighteen?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get out of the system? Even once you're eighteen… I knew I'd have a better chance if I stayed with my mom, and I thought I could help her, that if she just had me there with her, she'd be able to get better."

"That's not how it works, though." Morgan guesses. Reid shakes his head.

"I couldn't- I couldn't take care of her anymore. She was missing too much work, they were firing her, she could hardly remember to eat, she'd have these- these hallucinations, these delusions… more and more she'd forget who I was. Most of the time she, uh, she thought I was one of her students."

"You did what you had to do." Morgan says quietly.

"Maybe."

"Reid. You did what you thought was best. Your mom's better off with full-time care from qualified people, and so are you."

"I know." Reid murmurs. 

"We're gonna get this guy. One way or another."

Reid smiles slightly. "Yeah. I just hope for Grady's sake it's the way that involves finding them alive."

"I do, too." 


End file.
